The food regime in the land grab Philip McMichael (Cornell - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

The food regime in the land grab Philip McMichael (Cornell University, USA) Prepared for Sussex Land Grab conference. April 2011

Food regime change • Transitional expressions in land grab • Contradictions of corporate/surplus food regime anticipate new FR in making • Institutional structures, rules & norms under construction • Organizing principle tensions: elite- sponsored agro-industrialization vs agro- ecology (repeasantization + s/movements)

Revaluing land & peasant ways • In 2004, Vía Campesina: agribusiness power in pre/post-production, not in land. • Developmentalist blind-spot : “peasant -like ways of farming often exist as practices without theoretical representation … Hence they cannot be properly understood, (concluding) that they do not exist or that they are (an) irrelevant anomaly” (Ploeg)  self- fulfilling prophecy of „unproductivity‟

Global ecology perspective • „Rational planning of planet for Northern security‟ (Sachs 1993). • Local commons renamed global commons • N security now represented as global food, energy & ecological security ~ peak oil/CC •  grab for green fuel and food supply • WB view: „  productivity & farmland expansion in non- forested areas‟

Political economy perspective • „Rationing what is left of nature‟ (Sachs). • Relocating industrial/high-input agriculture • Capital‟s profitability crisis  investment in agriculture as partial solution. • Agr crops absorbed into financial chains: mix of crops (food/fuel/biomass) irrelevant to financial profit calculus. • Food riots + override of „free trade‟

Export restrictions & food riots

Post-fossil-fuel biomass project • Leading edge of new „bioeconomy‟ = land enclosure to transform plant matter into industrial commodities. • „Land best suited for biomass generation (LA, SSA) is least utilized‟ (US Sec of En) • „…low intensive agr management systems to be replaced by 2050 by best practice agr..‟ (European Report, 2004) • „yield gap‟ (WB) = productivity fetish vs multifunctional understanding of farming.

LG as vehicle of FR transition? • Corporate („cheap‟) FR: subsidized N dumping of surplus bulk cys in S mkts. • N farm sectors losing global competitive advantage + new mercantilism: X bans &/or subsidies for agr/biomass offshoring. • New investment patterns favor bulk cys – eg, SEA: 83% land acquired for L-Term dedicated to row crops (Borras/Franco).

CFR: invisible hand at work “the massive movement of food around the world is forcing the increased movement of people” (Via Campesina 2000)

Food regime transition • Rephrase? Massive movement of capital around the world is intensifying the movement of people… • Whereas food dumping (CFR) = crisis of low prices & depletion of peasantry, land grabbing = crisis of social reproduction . • From surplus , to deficit , food regime.

Food lines

Food riots

Transition.. • Shift in foundations of capital accumulation towards a new extractive food/fuel regime enclosing world‟s remaining land & water. • Agro-industrialization, where natural limits force, perversely, final solution for Nature. • Peak oil  price inflation of agricultural commodities  (speculative) investment in land.

Crude/Palm Oil synchrony 2000-09 140 1400 120 1200 100 1000 80 800 Crude Oil Palm Oil 60 600 40 400 20 200 0 0 2000M1 2000M5 2000M9 2001M1 2001M5 2001M9 2002M1 2002M5 2002M9 2003M1 2003M5 2003M9 2004M1 2004M5 2004M9 2005M1 2005M5 2005M9 2006M1 2006M5 2006M9 2007M1 2007M5 2007M9 2008M1 2008M5

Deforestation in Sumatra for pulp and palm [Greenpeace, The Guardian 8-20-10]

Land grab drivers • Energy crisis, mandates/subsidies rising price of N land, Kyoto protocols, accommodating host gov‟ts in South. • Financialization : converts agr‟l contracts to speculative derivatives  food price inflation, & speculations in land, food/fuels. • 2003-08: cy index holdings  $131-$317m • 2004-07: venture cap in biofuels  800%

Crisis of agro-industrialization • Declining profitability of ind‟l agriculture. • Declining biophysical productivity (nitrogen use efficiency  60-20%, 1950s-90s). • Loss of biodiversity & ecosystem services • Rising cost of „biophysical override‟ (Weis) • Rising energy costs & climate change risk. • Recognition in IAASTD Report (2008). •  offshoring of agro- capital…

Land grab enablers • Domestic construction of land rents + new mercantilist approach to food security. • Enabled by W/Bank: rhetoric of „yield gap‟ & „agriculture for development‟ • IFIs: modernize agriculture w value chains • AGRA: GR as export agr (agribusiness mkts) & „land mobility‟ (Gates Foundation) • Publicly-enabled global enclosure of nat res. (cf subsidized cheap food regime).

In sum: food regime shift.. • Agro-industrialization relocating = enclosure of nat/res W for global mkt. • Shift in geo-political co-cordinates, eg, N  S/EE, S  S, Oil states  S … • LG deepens Corp/FR: „agr w/out farmers‟ • LG signals turning point: geo-pol patterns & bioeconomy: capital centers on biomass (final subord‟n landed property & ecology). • Opposing (self) organizing principle: „repeasantization‟/agroecology…